no, not my mid-life crisis, but a certain seefutjai celebrated a milestone today: 42 human years! so about 6 years ago, a lil mutt (or 'international' dog i've been told) came into this world. shortly after that, i came home one night to find this same lil mutt squirming about in a cardboard box on the kitchen floor.
(the early years)
6 years have passed by so fast...
we learned to love and appreciate (and occasionally smack) this little beast.
so what did she do to celebrate?
"just leave me alone."
maybe i've hit some sort of mid-life milestone too. well, not b/c i'm feeling that old, but b/c i get these weird ideas out of nowhere sometimes. like for whatever reason, the idea of doing a triathlon came to mind (kinda like the lime coke). i immediately hopped around the internet lookin' for some events in the region, n some of 'em seem pretty crazy. no way i'm doing the "full" distance ones, but then again the super-beginner ones sound real cheesy. I mean: "Almost my First Triathlon"? i'd feel like such a wuss after that...sounds almost as dumb as something like "Almost my First Buffet". yeesh...
so neway, it was kinda hard to find events that were a)not too far away (i.e. still in the Lower Mainland) or b)not too hardcore (i.e. Penticton Ironman). but after some time, i found 2 promising looking ones:
either the
XTC Off-road Triathlon
or the...
Vancouver Triathlon.
both have regular distance events which would probably kill me, but they also have sprint distances which look doable (750m swim/20km bike/5km run). pretty sure i'll be quite hungry afterwards...better bring along a backpack full of food to be safe.
Chinaman in Disguise - Monday, May 2 2005
gloomy weather today, that's ok. could've been worse. i could've had the day off. funny thing happened; co-worker asked what my last name was, explaining that a few weeks ago the supervisor had sent out a memo to let everyone know that i'd be joining the team, but had left out my last name b/c for some reason she didn't know it. so last week they'd been silently trying to figure out what ethnicity i was. ok, i mean they knew i wasn't white, or black, but other than the obvious she told me they couldn't really be sure of anything. there were the usual guesses (flip, vietnamese, malaysian, some sort of mix...) but this was the first time i'd ever heard someone think i was south american! South American?! i don't even know what the heck a south american looks like...would that be like some kinda mexican? or an Inca? i remember learning about those dudes in elementary school (inca dinca doo...) but yeah i told 'em it's just plain 'ol "Lee" (not fernandez, or delgado, or ubungan, or nguyen or tran...) and i'm just a plain 'ol chinaman.
oh, and some other co-worker sent out this email quiz thingy...it's pretty trippy. do it:
At the end of this message, you are asked a question.
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>> Answer it immediately. Don't stop and think about it.
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>> Just say the first thing that pops into your mind.
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>> This is a fun "test"... AND kind of spooky at the same time!
>>Give it a try, then e-mail it around and you'll see how many
>>people you know fall into the same percentage as you. Be sure to
>>put in the subject line if you are among the 98% or the 2%. You'll
>>understand what that means after you finish taking the "test".
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>> Now... just follow the instructions as quickly as possible.
>>Do not go to the next calculation before you have finished the
>>previous one. You do not ever need to write or remember the
>>answers, just do it using your mind.
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>> You'll be surprised.
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>> Start:
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>> How much is:
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>> 15 + 6
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>> 75 + 26
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>> 63 + 32
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>> I know! Calculations are hard work, but it's nearly over..
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>> Come on, one more...
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>> 123 + 5
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>> QUICK! THINK ABOUT A COLOR AND A TOOL!
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>> Scroll further to the bottom...
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>> A bit more...
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>> You just thought about a red hammer, didn't you?
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>> If this is not your answer, you are among 2% of people who
>>have a different, if not abnormal, mind.
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>> 98% of the folks would answer a red hammer while doing this
>>exercise.
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>> If you do not believe this, pass it around and you'll see.
so what were you? 98% or 2%? i gotta say though: after sending this to my parents n my sister...our whole friggin' family's weird! we had: green hammer, blue hammer, yellow hammer...and the 4th (my pops)...didn't even think to answer the question!! he just read it n continued scrolling, then at the bottom asked "what's so special about a red hammer??" priceless. =P
Office Space - Tuesday, May 3 2004
witnessed my first "office cat-fight" today. well, not exactly your hair-pulling, nail-scratching cat-fight; more like a heated argument. but still, it was pretty awkward to have 2 ladies getting petty with each other and bickering 10 feet away from you in an open office space. i just tried to find something to keep myself busy (like staring blankly at the computer screen, folding/stuffing envelopes, date stamping documents...), but yeah it lasted for a good 5 minutes before they headed into the supervisor's office to duke it out with my supervisor as a "referee". office politics...nasty stuff.
*Random: this dude's crazy name had so many letters it didn't fit in the electronic forms on the database - Balakrishnan Subramanian (23 letters). O_o
in other news...gotta go in for some computer skills testing tomorrow, then gotta wake up disgustingly early for my thursday morning interview out in Surrey (for a job that i'm not even sure i want...), then i have another interview next thursday for a f/t position w/ BCIT. uy...life doesn't seem to be slowing down, so i'd better try n keep up...
Mobile Office - Wednesday, May 4 2005
Uncle Tyrone's leaving tomorrow morning, so we had a final big dinner tonight...which meant i had to get my ass home right after work, which means i had to go do my exercise during my lunch break. uuyy...don't think i'll be going back to the gym during lunch; too many cougars! it's like half the registration/admissions department in there! on another note; i wonder if the cardio machines there display miles or kms? i'm hoping they're miles for my sake...b/c if it took me that long to run 2.6km, i'll be toast in a triathlon! O_o
after the run, had a quick shower n read an interesting article from the National Post during lunch:
Fireman suddenly coherent after nine years of brain damage
By Robert D. McFadden
A former Buffalo, N.Y., firefighter who apparently suffered brain damage in a 1955 fire and has since been virtually silent and nearly blind has undergone an unexplained recovery, awakening suddenly on Saturday and asking for his wife.
"How long have I been gone?"
a puzzled Donald Herbert, 44, asked in a 14-hour marathon of hugs, kisses, reunions and conversations with his wife, four sons, other relatives and old firefighter comrades.
"We told him almost 10 years and he said, 'Holy Cow!'" Simon Manka, the man's uncle, recalled. "He thought it had been three months."
In a news conference on Monday at Father Baker Manor, a nursing home in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park where Mr. Herbert has been a patient for seven years, Mr. Manka said his nephew abruptly returned to life Saturday and "began to speak after nine-and-a-half-years of silence."
Pending medical tests, Mr. Manka said, the prospects of Mr. Herbert's recovery are unkown. "However, we can tell you he did recognize several family members and friends and did call them by name."
It happened out of the blue on Saturday morning, a nursing home employee said.
"I want to talk to my wife," Mr. Herbert was quoted as saying. A staff member called his wife, Linda, but it was his youngest son, 13-year-old Nicholas, who picked up the phone and began speaking.
"That can't be," Mr. Herbert said. "He's just a baby. He can't talk."
Nicholas was indeed a toddler when Mr. Herbert rushed into a burning apartment building in Buffalo on the morning of Dec. 29, 1995. He wore a breathing mask against heavy smoke and was searching the attic for victims when the roof collapsed.
Buried under flaming debris, the man was knocked unconscious and, according to reports at the time, went six minutes without oxygen before other firefighters pulled him free. They carried him out of a window and down a ladder. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
Mr. Herbert, who had rescued two adults and two small children in a 1990 fire and had many citations for bravery, had severe head trauma as well as prolonged oxygen deprivation and remained in a coma for two-and-a-half months.
Meanwhile, his wife and four sons received an avalanche of cards and letters as the community rallied around them. Fellow firefighters helped with the boys, with shopping, with money.
Linda Herbert never stopped caring for her husband. Although a decade has passed, she still regularly brought the boys to his bedside, usually several times a week, said Thomas Burton, a family friend who represented her in a personal-injury lawsuit.
"It's been a ritual, sad as it is, since the horrible injuries this fireman had," Mr. Burton said.
While Mr. Herbert regained consciousness in 1996, his speech was slurred, he was unable to eat without help, he was confined to a bed or wheelchair and his vision was reduced to a series of blurs. Doctors said they had found no damage to the optic nerves, but the part of the brain that controls vision appeared to have been damaged.
Moreover, Mr. Herbert's memory was almost nonexistent. He could not say how old he was or what his job had been. He seemed unable to recognize family members and friends, and firefighting comrades had become virtual strangers.
On Saturday, as word of Mr. Herbert's progress spread, a stream of visitors arrived at Father Baker Manor for reunions with a man who had seemed lost to them.
For a stretch of 14 hours, Mr. Manka said, Mr. Herbert spoke with people and asked questions, especially about his sons: Donny, now 24, Thomas, 23, both in graduate school, Patrick 21, a college student, and Nicholas, a schoolboy. He wouldn't go to sleep," said Mrs. Herbert's mother, Mary Blake. "He stayed up all night talking to his sons."
Mr. Manka, a lawyer, said in a telephone interview his nephew's apparent recovery struck everyone as amazing. "He was completely different," he said. "He was asking questions, and he'd recognize a voice."
Patrick Coghlan was the lieutenant in charge of Mr. Herbert's rescue squad on the night of the roof collapse. On Sunday, he said, Mr. Herbert recognized the voices of his comrades and, while he could not see them, identified members of his old crew.
"We have no idea how it happened," Ms. Blake said. "There are more people praying for this young man, so it's all in God's hands. Even if we had him for just one day, we'd be eternally grateful."
While relatives remain cautious about the man's progress, members of Buffalo's religious community are murmuring his awakening may be a miracle. A movement is afoot to make Father Nelson Baker of nearby Lackawanna a saint, and some people have suggested Mr. Herbert's sudden ability to speak could be part of the process.
"This may be the first step in a long journey," Mr. Burton said. "It's Earth-shaking what took place. We don't want to make more or less of it than what it should be, but you can't change what everybody saw this last weekend."
(New York Times, with files from Mary Vallis, National Post)
things seem more interesting when you can relate in some way or another; guess the same goes for people too.
Thursday, May 5 2005
bloody nice weather today. woke up at friggin 0645, drove pops to work @ 0715, drove about 45min. to get to the edge of Surrey-Cloverdale n found the interview place. grabbed a quick bite @ IHOP - i got scammed! i just wanted a quick, cheap breakfast so i ordered one of the toonie meals: 2 sausage, stack 'o pankcakes for $2. that's not a bad deal, buti was in such a rush that when i sat down n the waitress asked if i wanted some juice i said sure. i should've known better n just asked for water, but it's hard to think straight on an empty stomach. big mistake. the bill comes: food-$2, oj-$2.68!!! yeesh...
o yeah, the interview was ok too.
so yeah i get back to the office around 1130, find out my contract's been extended for another 2 weeks. cool.
on another Random note: mom unintentionally (so she claims) stole someone's groceries today. i came home n saw a bag of weird stuff on the table, stuff that she normally wouldn't buy, n asked what it was for. she said she must've grabbed an extra bag of stuff when she was bagging/collecting her stuff at the checkout. good news is; neither her nor the other person noticed anything, so she didn't know she'd made off w/ the goods until she got home, and that extra bag of stuff had these giant "haw flakes" (type of chinese candy) in 'em...i love those things, haven't had 'em for quite a while. bad news is; too bad that person wasn't buying meat. apart from the haw flakes, there was nothing else good in the bag. =(
but...those giant haw flakes alone were enough to induce some retardedness:
the Flake
Friday, May 6 2005
nothin' much to talk about on a Friday at the office...everyone just wants to go home for the weekend. however, around 1345, i just got an uncontrollable urge all of a sudden (almost out of nowhere!)...i tried to resist, but my will was too weak, and i leapt at the first opportunity that arrived...and ran to the building next door n bought a bag of chips n an oh henry bar. dammitt...this "triathlon-training" isn't starting out so good...
oh well, to end the week on a positive note, caught sight of an ad today in the Georgia Straight for:
going on @ the Empire Landmark hotel on Robson, May 27-29
it's the 2nd year for this event, i remember them hyping it up all last summer when i was working at the BCIT Downtown campus b/c it was the first one ever, but i couldn't make it for whatever reason, but this year it looks like i'll be free. anyone interested? click the poster for more info.
annddd...that's the kinda week it's been.